CEO v0.55 Balance Preview
v0.55 rebalance:
- GravityMage complete rework into AoE gravitywell insanity
- Aquarius magic can now target empty locations, or allies
- Comet can now target status-immune champions to trigger AoE
- Comet cost-1 at all tiers
- Butterfly ability is now unstoppable (destroy aspect remains magic)
- "vanishing" no longer counts as a death for purpose of effects
- Dryad magic now has [Pay 2] instead of 1
- Portal gains cycle teleswap, allowing instant promotes
- Salamander base/+ gain diagonal move-from-start
- Swordsman moveset improved at all tiers
- Snake cost reduced to 0/1/2/4
- Drake gains range 2 diagonal teleports at all tiers, and a new +++
- Fencer cost changed to 4/7/10/13
- Wrath cost reduced to 6/8/9/10
- Siren cost reduced to 4/6/7/9
- Lust cost reduced to 5/8/9/10
- HauntedArmor+++ cost-1 and moveset changed to teleswaps
- Crusader++ cost-1
- AirElemental cost-1 at all tiers
- AirElemental value loss on kill increased to 6
- WaterElemental+++ cost-1
- Phoenix (cost+penalty) changed to 22/24/26/28
- NullMage moveset improved at all tiers, at cost 4/7/9/12
- Null magic now locks value at 0, preventing all value gain effects.
- Void magic now increases target value by 2 as a secondary effect.
- Hydromancer base tier cost-1
- Knight+++ cost-1
- Temperance tiershifted up at same cost
- Penguin moveset improved all tiers, at cost 0/1/2/4
- Templar cost-1 at all tiers
- LifeStone gains (Magic-Immune)
There are also a few balance-centric bugfixes that come to mind:
~ Comet/Aquarius Death locations moved to correct location (fix).
~ Bat drain passive now gives value to King instead of Bat (fix).
~ Poisoned PhoenixEgg can no longer transform into Phoenix (fix).
~ Void magic no longer ignores pike passive (fix).
Please review these changes for strict imbalances.
Crowns will be awarded to anyone finding some.
Not everything in the rebalance list is susceptible to problems of strict imbalance, but opinions are also welcome. The update will be finished soon, and will include a transfer token to allow verification of your account for transfer to the steam version that I will begin making almost immediately after this one is proven stable. This token will allow transfer even if you lose access to the game on Kongregate, so I would prefer to have it done within the next couple days.
I like how Grand tries to prove me wrong every time I say a unit is probably close to balanced vs. agree that the cost should be lower, rip 15/16/18/24 angel.
Gemini exists and my stall army doesn't use Dryad anyway
"Swordsman moveset improved" is probably strictly better than something, because classic grand, half the things on this are vague, I would like to see the cycling portal and Penguin. Make sure Penguin++ is not a Spearman strict upgrade.
My initial reaction to that angel suggestion was that it would be fine, but then I started to think angel+ at 16 overshadows base completely. I don't think these angel costs are especially hazardous changes but decided to skip for now.
anyway here are some of the "moveset improved" minions:
(swordsman+++ doesn't have move-from-start, they become normal move-only)(this is mostly to prevent getting stuck, but with a little inspiration)Also I think Siren base may need a buff moveset-wise, base has strictly worse moveset than fencer if we dont take into account compel, which does not seem to be that usefull (maybe against enthropic minions it clears the path for an attack, but still), I have not used Siren a lot tho so take this with a grain of salt).
I understand it can't be cheaper since then it would eliminate the whole poing of base Greed.
Maybe making compel stack would be an interesting buff (?)
Techincally speaking base is almost fine, compared to skeleton+ and royalguard+ and probably some other piece the siren ability is worth 1 point more i guess. The common thing among all these pieces though is that merc almost always outclasses them. royalguard+ gets outclassed by other tiers of royal guard. In conclusion buff sirens ability somehow
Compared to those it is decent but now Fencer base cost the same, has more diagonal movement and armor.
I did not compare it to minions because they do not compete for the campion slot, it is bad when compared to Fencer moveset, maybe on its own is not a bad 4 cost champion but I can't think of a deck that would prefer Siren over Fencer (maybe compel is better than I think and I am mistaken, but from my experience compel is not worth more than 2 more diagonal movement and armor)
It is not an strict imbalance, but I think Pikeman base compares poorly with Penguin++ (Pikeman has its passive and attacks instead of freeze, but penguin++ can move horizontally witout help, defend back squares and still threaten the same forward squares as Pikeman at the same price)
I would argue that pikeman is better than penguin++ as freeze is much worse than attacking on a low cost piece especially when the both pieces' primary use is defense, a role forced by poor mobility as worst case scenario you trade with the piece best case is you have enough attackers on the square to take it for free. Freeze's primary purpose is to give extra time so you can take it for free or take it with a cheap piece. However you can't take a piece much cheaper than 2 and the risks are fairly large considering that your opponent can outtempo you fairly easily if you aren't careful and force you to lose material. That said both have their place but in many situations pikeman is better than penguin++.
Freezing in your own side of the board is underrated because it keeps the enemy piece blocking that square and it delays an unstoppable attack (I am biased because that is what I have to defend against on most of my games), whereas killing may end up in an unfavourable trade, and pikeman will be mispositioned if killing on the diagonals, but I see your point regarding an inmediate threat and not losing the ability to capture because of your opponent creating new threats when something is freeze, so maybe it is just that I am biased by my specific games and Pikeman is better in general, whereas Penguin is more situational (still, I think when pikeman takes on its diagonals it loses its defensive capabilities)
It's worth noting that penguin++ is currently the least used unit in the game, and has been considered 'extremely weak' for a very long time in the cycle form it shared with bombers, so if it becomes debate-ably stronger than pikeman for certain strategies I think that's actually a good sign and matches the intended purpose of the change.
Supposing the penguin buff is overcompensation, I think it's still unlikely to result in major problems since stacking multiple sources of freeze has diminishing returns (especially when the targets overlap), compared to stacking more attacks which helps to win trades.
I totally agree, new Penguin is not OP by any means, and it coming back into the game relatively strong is great.
I just say that pikeman base may be a bit overpriced now (but at 1 cost it would probably be way too cheap so it is okey), but this is a minor problem compared to penguin needing that buff.
Gotta say I'm pretty pleased with the penguin buff.
Am interested in seeing the Gravity Mage rework.
From grand on the discord:
Thanks
Since you mentioned thinking Envy at base seemed to overshadow the others, redesign plz?